March 27th

At Sea

In a Fog

When I awoke this morning I could hear our foghorn. Yes we are still in the fog. The foghorn has not stopped all day, although the sun came out later this afternoon.

After my huge success with the glass elephant painting, I decided it was time to try my hand at making greetings cards. That should be simple. It wasn’t. Not only did it involve paint, but there was also double sided tape involved. First of all I was unable to peel one side of the tape off, and when I had finally done so, I turned the card over and it promptly stuck to the table. Not easy to separate it again, but I won. Next came the glue for the sparkles. I didn’t win that battle, nor the one with the ribbon. My masterpiece will not be coming to a Hallmark store close to you in the near future. However, Brian said it was very good, so at least I have one fan.

It took me so long to create the card that I missed Professor Marie Conte-Helm’s talk on “The Art of the Japanese Garden”. I have so loved the Japanese gardens we have seen, and would love to introduce some elements into our back yard. Alas, I don’t think we could copy the cherry blossoms. We have 3 cherry trees, but they just don’t blossom correctly, and the birds get the fruit before we can.

I grabbed my computer and joined Brian in the Commodore Club. It was time to try to eliminate some of the thousands of photos we have taken so far, before my hard drive crashes again under the weight of all of the photos. It was great to sit there listening to the foghorn, and watching us slowly make our way to Xiamen.

They held another interactive Japanese workshop this afternoon. I did not attend, but certainly enjoyed the previous one. Many of the women in the craft sessions are Japanese, and seem to be having a great time trying their hand at western projects. I love sitting next to them and watching them master things so easily, while I am trying to extricate myself from the glue I have managed to get all over me. Thank goodness they have now given me a plastic apron.

Brian has been very good at spending at least an hour in the gym every morning, even on port days. The closest I have got to the gym is the spa. Today I decided to join him on his walk around the Promenade Deck. He also spends an hour doing this in the late afternoon. Dressed appropriately, I joined him, and managed to do 3 laps (0.9 miles) before coming to terms with the fact that the dampness and wind were playing havoc with my hair, and it was time to retreat to the safety of indoors. I think Brian was a bit put off by the fact that we were overtaken by one of our former tablemates. He is 87, and walks extremely fast. I am very impressed.

Tonight is the Oriental Ball. Brian has a beautiful blue silk bow tie with Chinese characters on it; I have a red and gold shawl with dragons and lanterns. I am looking forward to seeing what other passengers are wearing.

I was not disappointed. There were many passengers wearing beautiful silk Chinese dresses, and one man with a very bright embroidered silk tuxedo jacket. He certainly stood out in the crowd. A lot of passengers have really taken a lot of effort to go along with the oriental theme, and it was lovely to see.

We got to meet our new tablemates. One couple has been at this table since the start of the world voyage in Southampton and are doing the full world cruise. They explained why the ship was so late leaving Shanghai. They had been on the Cunard evening tour in Shanghai. By the time they returned to the port at 10:00, the all-onboard time, the customs and immigration officers had gone home. The passengers on the tour had to wait for over an hour until they returned before they could board the ship, and we could sail away.

The other couple is also doing the full world cruise. They usually sit at another table, but as their tablemates are currently doing the overland tour to Beijing, they were alone, so had decided to join us until their regular tablemates return in Hong Kong.

We had a lively evening, and it was after 10:30 when we finished our meal. So we were late getting to the show.

The show was a production show called “The Outsider”. The singing and dancing was great and I really enjoyed it, and didn’t fall asleep for a change.

The foghorn was still sounding as we returned to our cabin. It certainly has been the foggiest of days. Hopefully tomorrow will be brighter.